The Glade 4.0

Bill would make annoying a cop a crime

Annoyance would have to accompany physical contact

Updated: Wednesday, 05 Jun 2013, 9:10 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 05 Jun 2013, 2:38 PM EDT



ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) - A bill currently making its way through the State Legislature would make it a crime to annoy a police officer, a move that could have far reaching consequences.

The State Senate passed the bill Wednesday that makes it felony to "harass, annoy, threaten or alarm" an on duty police officer by subjecting them to any physical contact.

A press release from the NYS Senate originally stated, "The bill (S.2402), sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo (R-C-I, Rome) would make it a felony to harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty." However, as the bill is written, a person would be guilty of aggravated harassment of a police officer if he or she subjected that officer to physical contact with the intent to "harass, annoy, threaten or alarm" that officer.

The bill was sponsored by local Senators Pat Gallivan, George Maziarz and Michael Ranzenhofer, as well as Senator Joe Griffo (R) of Rome.

Griffo stated, "Police officers who risk their lives every day in our cities and on our highways deserve every possible protection, and those who treat them with disrespect, harass them and create situations that can lead to injuries deserve to pay a price for their actions."

Anyone found guilty under the bill, should it become law, could face up to four years in prison.

The bill is now on its way to the State Assembly.

Uh. Harassing, annoying, threatening or alarming ANYONE while you're touching them, cop or not, on duty or not should be (and is, as far as I know) a crime. This doesn't really qualify as tyranny. This is more about a politician reacting to some news story and wanting to make some statement.

Granted its adding a law that is already covered by other laws, its its not really tyranny--just political showboating.

Uh. Harassing, annoying, threatening or alarming ANYONE while you're touching them, cop or not, on duty or not should be (and is, as far as I know) a crime. This doesn't really qualify as tyranny. This is more about a politician reacting to some news story and wanting to make some statement.

Granted its adding a law that is already covered by other laws, its its not really tyranny--just political showboating.

Dollars to doughnuts that this gets used just like disorderly conduct charges. When the cops got nothin just use a charge thats their word vs the soon to be arrested person.

Uh. Harassing, annoying, threatening or alarming ANYONE while you're touching them, cop or not, on duty or not should be (and is, as far as I know) a crime. This doesn't really qualify as tyranny. This is more about a politician reacting to some news story and wanting to make some statement.

Granted its adding a law that is already covered by other laws, its its not really tyranny--just political showboating.

The difference is in the penalty. This is basically the same as Harassment in the 2nd Degree under existing NY law (NY Penal Law, S 240.26), which is a simple "violation" (which is even lower than a misdemeanor), meaning the maximum sentence is 15 days. The new law is a "Class E felony", meaning the minimum sentence is 3 years and the maximum is 4 years. On top of that, of course, are all the long-term effects of having a felony on your record instead of just a violation.

Which in reality means the officer has to claim physical contact occurs.

Obviously. If the officer didn't claim physical contact occurred, the law wouldn't be violated.

If you mean "in reality the officer just has to say someone touched him and they're automatically guilty" no, it's not like that, nor is that how disorderly conduct works. That's pure fantasy.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

I'm not sure what planet you are from anymore, Diamondeye, because it's obviously not Earth. Maybe it's simply occupational bias, but you have a very rose colored opinion of law enforcement agents, agencies, and practices in this country.

All you're doing is trying to get a majority dogpile going, since you're in a place where your fringe viewpoint is actually common.

If by "fringe" you mean roughly 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 people (depending upon what studies/polls you look at)in this country NOT having much confidence in law enforcement, then sure. That's fringe.

I don't know a single person that truly trusts law enforcement officers.

It'd be harder for Donald Trump to **** my day up than it would be for a police officer of any kind.

I'm not sure what planet you are from anymore, Diamondeye, because it's obviously not Earth. Maybe it's simply occupational bias, but you have a very rose colored opinion of law enforcement agents, agencies, and practices in this country.

So what? Do you think anyone that can **** your day up is inherently untrustworthy? There are a lot of people that can do that.

We have a word for that, although I believe the polite term is to state that one smells bacon.

So what? I wasn't even referring to wall street executives; I was referring to the plethora of people that can easily kick your ***. That still doesn't change the fact that distrusting someone because of what they can do, or because of what some members of their group do, is still just bigotry.



For every 5 such videos, 4.5 of them don't actually show anything wrong; they either show the police acting within the law and people just not liking it, or they show an ambiguous situation and people jumping to conclusions - a glade specialty.



"History has shown power can lead to corruption" is so vague as to be worthless. In many cases, the person was just corrupt regardless and somehow gained power.